Women still striving for Longmont Police Department firsts

Top cops are all men and have been historically

Five Longmont Police officers, all men, were promoted last week, There are no female officers in high ranking positions at the Longmont Police department.
(Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- In the training room on the second floor of the Longmont Police Department on Thursday, new badges were pinned to the chests of five officers who had earned big promotions.

The department minted two new commanders and three new sergeants, each with long resumes of accomplishment in law enforcement. Longmont Public Safety Chief Mike Butler read the credentials of each, such as stints at the FBI national academy, medals of valor and letters of commendation.

All five of the promotions went to men, which with rare exception has been the norm for leadership among sworn officers in Longmont.

Of 117 sworn officers -- police employees with a badge and gun -- 17 are women. Among 20 sergeants, five commanders, two deputy chiefs, and one chief, all are men.

The highest rank any woman has ever attained at the Longmont Police Department among sworn officers was sergeant -- the first rung of the promotional ladder -- and the most recent woman to hold that position left the department in March 2007. Because of the department's requirements to be promoted, the department is years away from having a woman in one of the top command positions.

An officer must work for the department for five years before he or she may apply for sergeant, according to job requirements. Once promoted to sergeant, an officer must hold the position for two years before applying for commander, should one of the five commander jobs become available.

Under that structure, even if a woman made sergeant today, it would be at earliest 2015 before Longmont's police department could have a woman in one of the top command positions over sworn officers.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said women are in top level civilian positions at the department, such as the head of records and communications. He added that Officer Sara Aerne is in the sergeant apprentice program and Officer Melinda Burnett tested for sergeant for the most recent round of promotions. However, there are relatively few women in the pool.

Boulder County commander Heidi Prentup is seen at the Peace Officer Memorial Service on Friday May 17, 2013, at the Safety and Justice Center.
(Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

"Many of our more experienced female officers work in detectives," Satur noted, adding that seven of 24 detectives are women.

He said that gender isn't a hurdle at Longmont.

"We encourage everybody to apply," he said.

Boulder County and beyond

Women are climbing the ranks of law enforcement leadership in Boulder County and other departments, but overall they tend to be far outnumbered by men in a field traditionally male dominated.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office has 215 sworn deputies, and 50 are women. Five of 31 sergeants and one of nine commanders are women in the department that serves unincorporated Boulder County, Lyons, Niwot and Superior. The Boulder Police Department has 165 sworn officers, with 36 women. Five of 24 sergeants and one of five commanders are women. Comparatively, Fort Collins has 28 women among its 193 officers, with three being sergeants. The upper ranks are a bit different because the department has lieutenants and captains instead of the commander rank. No women currently hold those positions. Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis said women have held those top jobs before.

Climbing the ranks

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said it is important to have women in a department and to have them in leadership roles, but it can be tough to develop that pool to begin with.

"We make it known that we are looking for good women candidates," he said.

That means recruiting at job fairs, colleges, and taking out ads in publications focused on law enforcement. All the same, he said, of about 600 applications for 12 recent positions at the Boulder Police Department, between 20 and 25 percent of the applicant pool were women. The rigorous background and testing requirements alone take out much of the pool. Ultimately, two of those 12 positions were offered to female candidates.

"The competition is pretty tough," he said. "We're not going to hire someone who is not qualified simply because they are one ethnicity or sex."

Many women have been hired and been promoted within in his department, though. And Beckner said Boulder always fairs well among benchmark cities nationwide when it comes to having women on the force.

Boulder County Sheriff's Cmdr. Heidi Prentup was promoted to the position in 2008 and became the county's first female commander.

She said her boss, Sheriff Joe Pelle, is supportive of women in the department, but there can be hurdles for women in the male-dominated field

"It seems to me that women have to be more educated to be promoted," she said. "I have a master's degree and I am going to say that most of my counterparts do not. It has been a struggle for me. I think that women bring a different approach to law enforcement."

She said while men and women can be compassionate, women tend to look at the humanity of both suspects and victims.

The job can also be a physical one, but she said that hasn't mattered.

"I have never not been able to handle a situation because of physical strength," she said. "I have talked people into handcuffs that were upset."

Two Longmont officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the department feels like a "good ol' boy club" and that women are "put in their place" early on. One of the women said that a woman who stands up for herself is "emotional," while men who take stands are considered "passionate."

Longmont Police Officer Sara Aerne said she has never personally felt that way in her six years at the department, but respects that some others may have. She considered sergeant for the department's most recent round of promotions but said she did not think it was the right time for her, personally.

However, she said her career ambitions include both sergeant and eventually commander.

"I'd like to be a proactive change agent," she said. Aerne said she has seen both men and women defer or opt out of seeking promotions because of the additional commitment.

"A lot of it is personal choice," she said. "It is definitely a step up in expectations."

Aerne said that in 15 years in law enforcement she has not felt that gender played a role in her career advancement. She recalled asking during her interview process for her job at Longmont why no women were in supervisor roles and heard that many don't opt into the application process. Having worked at the department she said she feels it isn't cultural, but that women haven't been attracted to the jobs for the most part.

"It is not something they desire," she said. "It is additional responsibility they may not want."

Boulder Police Sgt. Lauri Wegscheider, who served as the department's first female motorcycle officer, said she never weighed her gender when considering her ambitions at her department.

"If I did it, it was for my own self, it was for me having goals for myself and not wanting to fail," she said. "When I think about that question. I think I wasn't treated any differently, but I had goals for myself."

Training on a police motorcycle that weighs about 1,000 pounds with all of its equipment was particularly rough given her relatively smaller stature compared to many male officers. The rigor of the training was the one time she thought that having a larger physique may have helped. All the same, she passed the training -- which she said only about 40 percent of those who start can do -- and served as a motorcycle officer until she suffered serious injury in a crash.

Cherry Hills Police Chief Michelle Tovrea also said she advanced because she wanted to do so.

Like many women who are serving in high-ranking police positions, in her career at the Lakewood Police Department she achieved many firsts for women officers in the department -- first SWAT team member, first firearms instructor, and first K9 handler. She said she had male and female mentors who helped her as she was promoted from officer to sergeant to commander and to division chief during her 29 years at Lakewood. About a year ago she accepted the top cop job at Cherry Hills.

"They were things that I wanted to do because I was interested in them," she said. "I didn't do all of these things to be the first woman to do XYZ."

Still, she said, there were times in her career where she said she felt she had to prove herself to "older gentlemen" who doubted a woman's role in policing.

"I have had people thank me for some of the things I have done over the course of my career," she said, adding that women who served in the police department before her truly blazed the way.

In the Cherry Hills department she leads, there are 22 sworn officers, including her. Of those five are women, one is a sergeant and one is chief.

She said applicant pools do not always allow for a gender or racial diversity, so she aims for a diversity of thought among her staffers.

"What you need to have to have a well run and thoughtful organization," she said.

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